Country
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Long before Chayce Beckham hit No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart with “23,” he was a teenager growing up in inland Southern California with varied and diverse musical interests. The American Idol season 19 winner, who cites outlaw country legends Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard as influences, even went through a reggae phase — “around the same time I started smoking weed,” he tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast.
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“I just really branched out and looked for anything and everything,” says Beckham, who once sang and played guitar in The Sinking Sailors, a four-piece with a Caribbean-meets-skater sound not unlike quintessential Southern California band Sublime. “I wanted to be a rapper at one point, and I wanted to be a punk rocker, and I wanted to be a reggae artist, and then I made my way back to country music,” he says.
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Coming full circle was a fateful — and fruitful — decision for Beckham. “23” topped Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated April 6) and has amassed nearly 500 million streams globally through June 20, according to Luminate. It marked the first time in 12 years that a No. 1 Country Airplay song was solo written by the performer. The previous artist to accomplish the feat? Taylor Swift with her song “Ours.”
Not that reggae-drenched rock didn’t suit Beckham’s voice, but his delivery is perfectly suited for songs such as “Everything I Need,” the latest single from his debut album, Bad For Me (released April 5 on Wheelhouse Records). The song, along with “Devil I’ve Been,” a frequent show opener, came from a writing session with John Pierce (Zac Brown Band’s “Sweet Annie,” Jon Paris “Your Heart Or Mine”) and Lindsay Rimes (Nate Smith’s “World On Fire,” Kane Brown’s “Cool Again”) while on Luke Bryan’s 2023 Farm Tour.
“A bunch of the songs that are on the project we got from bringing the writers out on the road,” he says. “That was really good for me. I felt like it was just a lot more relaxed. I could kind of just be a little bit more creative and not so pressured into the songs.”
Listen to the entire interview with Chayce Beckham here or at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music or Everand.
Country Music Hall of Fame member Alan Jackson and writer-producer Buddy Cannon are among those to be feted at the upcoming seventh annual Nashville Songwriter Awards, which will return to Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 24.
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The celebration will honor the peer-voted “10 Songs I Wish I’d Written,” as well as NSAI’s song, songwriter and songwriter-artist of the year honorees, as well as individuals who have had considerable influence in the world of songwriting.
Jackson will be honored with the Kris Kristofferson lifetime achievement award. Jackson has earned 26 Billboard No. 1 Country Airplay hits during his career as a performer, but also a songwriter on hits including “Don’t Rock the Jukebox,” “Gone Country,” “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow” and “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning).” He’s been lauded by the Grammys, the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association, and has earned stars on both the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Music City Walk of Fame. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011 and the all-genre Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.
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“When the NSAI Board of Directors chose Alan Jackson as this year’s recipient of the Kris Kristofferson Lifetime Achievement Award, I knew they had made a fantastic choice,” Jennifer Turnbow, NSAI Chief Operating Officer, said in a statement. “I was eager to craft a segment of our annual awards show around his work as a songwriter. But it wasn’t until I really studied his body of work and recalled decades of his songs that I realized just how deserving he was of this recognition. Alan’s songs, many of which he wrote by himself, have marked significant moments in time and are etched into the memories of multiple generations. Choosing only a handful of his many hits to highlight in a celebration of his career will be incredibly challenging … that I’m looking forward to!”
“City National Bank has supported the music industry from the first day we opened our doors in 1954 and we are especially proud of our work in the beloved country music and local Nashville communities,” Diane Pearson and Lori Badgett, co-managers of City National Entertainment in Nashville, offered via a statement. “On behalf of City National, we congratulate the incomparable Alan Jackson for his Kris Kristofferson Lifetime Achievement Award. For decades, Alan, as both an artist and a songwriter, has delivered the most inspirational, motivational and uplifting music and we applaud the recognition of his eloquent songwriting artistry.”
Cannon will be recognized with the NSAI president’s keystone award, honoring his contributions to the industry, including his work with artists Kenny Chesney and Willie Nelson. Cannon launched his career by playing bass for Bob Luman and Mel Tillis, and later gained acclaim as a songwriter for co-writing hits including Vern Gosdin’s “Set ‘Em Up Joe,” as well as George Strait’s “I’ve Come to Expect It From You” and “Give It Away.” His work as an A&R executive has included signing and developing artists including Shania Twain and Billy Ray Cyrus, while he’s also helmed projects for artists including Alison Krauss, George Jones and Reba McEntire. Cannon has won three Grammy Awards for his work with Nelson and in 2006 was named the ACM’s producer of the year. He was also a 2021 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee. Cannon and Chesney just celebrated their latest No. 1 hit with “Take Her Home.”
“Buddy Cannon has spent decades as an elite member of our Music Row community,” NSAI president Lee Thomas Miller said in a statement. “He has written songs for some of country music’s most legendary superstars, has ridden buses playing in their bands and he is one of the most important record producers of the last 30 years. It is impossible to calculate the impact Buddy Cannon has had on the songwriters in this town. He is famous for being tough on songs and helping build multi decade careers, like Kenny Chesney’s, is an example of how incredible his barometer is for a hit song. I’m proud to present Buddy Cannon with the 2024 NSAI President’s Award.”
Starting this year, NSAI introduces a new accolade, the legendary song honor, which will fete one tune chosen by NSAI’s professional songwriting members as the legendary song of its time, starting with tracks from 1967 to 1983. The NSAI board of directors selected 10 impactful songs in the given range and the pro membership anonymously voted to determine the winning song. The inaugural legendary song award recipient will be revealed and performed during the show.
Performer and ticket information for the Nashville Songwriter Awards will be announced soon, with the onsale date set for July 26. The Nashville Songwriter Awards is supported by City National Bank, Composers Wing, SoundExchange, Tennessee Association of Broadcasters and The Mechanical Licensing Collective.
Grammy award-nominated singer-songwriter Tayla Parx has always been country. Hailing from Dallas, the 30-year-old multihyphenate became just the fourth Black woman in history to write a Country Airplay No. 1 with Dan + Shay’s “Glad You Exist” (2021), and a few months ago, Parx moved to Nashville.
There, she has been developing a sustainable ranch while prepping her forthcoming third album, Many Moons, Many Suns (out on her TaylaMade Records), which explores the unexpected end of her engagement and combines country, rock, house, soul and contemporary pop. “I’m buying goats, sheep and cows,” she says of her new home. “I’m already excited about the songs that I’ll create just being here.”
Below, Parx previews her new album and reflects on queer pop stardom.
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What’s the first thing you did when you woke up today?
The first thing I did when I woke up today was load a tractor. I got a tractor to live in and my friend just dropped it off. I’ve been working on my little ranch.
What drew you to Nashville?
I started to come down here last year, but maybe three or four months ago, I officially was [here] full time. I’m still in Los Angeles once or twice a week, but this is my home.
What was a key moment on the journey to your new album?
Being able to take four years, I finally was like, “I feel new again.” [We] go through these feelings of breaking down and building up and breaking down your new version of yourself … I’m in that moment now. [That’s] when it’s the right time for me to create, or finish, the album.
Last year you co-wrote on Troye Sivan’s “Got Me Started” and Janelle Monáe’s “Water Slide.” Did you carry any inspiration from those sessions into your own?
We have a problem in the songwriting world where you’ll see a queer artist and they have only straight writers on the project, and that’s a bit weird. Or we see a woman artist and they only have straight men as writers, and that’s also a bit weird. I’m not saying we can’t have that perspective, because I’ve written for a lot of different people and I haven’t experienced their version of life. However, it’s always important to have at least somebody be a part of the project that can see you in a very different way — and maybe that’s because they’re queer. So I’ve been choosing to write with a lot of artists [with whom] I can write from that perspective. I’ve been a lot more selective these days.
“Era” has heavy ballroom energy, as does “10s.” How did examining your relationship affect your influences while recording?
We have that ballroom energy, New Orleans energy, all the things that I’ve experienced in my life that are such a huge part of queer culture. With “10s,” I played a lot with pulling from my community, the different sounds that inspire us and make us move. I really wanted to go to the extreme. A lot of the music that is the most groundbreaking is ballroom. We’ve been forced to be out of the boundary, or seen as that, for so long that it was like, “F–k it. Well, I might as well be the best version of me — and do me to the max.”
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When you were coming up, who were the songwriters that made you feel most seen?
I feel like I’m just now having an opportunity in the past few years to have artists that actually make me feel seen. Around 2015, I was listening to Marika Hackman’s “Boyfriend,” and it’s a queer song and I had never heard something lyrically like [that.] That’s not to say that there [aren’t] any queer artists that have been out there being very forward, I’m just saying what spoke to me. Being born in ‘93 and a teenager in the 2000s, it’s a very different thing.
If you had to pick three essential tracks from the new record, what would they be?
I would say, “Standing Up to the Wind,” “Gentlewoman” and “I Don’t Talk About Texas.”
Beyond the album, what are your plans for the rest of the year?
We are getting back on the road. I’m super excited because it’s been a minute since I’ve been on the road. I went from consistently touring to taking a break and really allowing the music to come. We got some crazy sustainable and biodegradable merch coming, which is really cool. And more behind the scenes of the process — I’m making sure that everything within the TaylaMade world reflects [my] values.
A version of this story originally appeared in the June 22, 2024, issue of Billboard.
It’s arguably easier to figure a pitcher’s earned run average than to determine a car’s horsepower, and it’s a good bet that the majority of drivers don’t know how much horsepower their engine generates.
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But nearly everyone realizes that a larger number equals more speed. So when Tyler Hubbard brags that he has “700 horses under the hood” in the chorus of his new single, “Park,” it’s easy to get what he’s saying. Especially since he, like most of us, understands it more as a comparative number than one he needs to calculate.
“I had a friend in college who had a super-fast car that was like a muscle car basically,” Hubbard recalls. “There was 800 horsepower. It was like a race car, and I can even go to the drag strip with it and compete. So I knew like 800 horsepower is a ton of horsepower for a car. So 700 is a souped-up car for sure.”
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It’s a detail that fits an automotive-themed T-Hub song.
“He’s always loved to go fast,” says co-writer Canaan Smith (“Famous,” “Runaway”). “Back in the day, when we first met at Belmont College, he was riding his motorcycle up and down the interstate doing wheelies at 80 miles an hour.”
“Park” emerged near the end of a songwriters retreat at the Gulf Coast home of Jesse Frasure (“Halfway To Hell,” “Young Love & Saturday Nights”). A couple different teams were working simultaneously on material for Hubbard, who ricocheted from room to room as the songs developed. They’d already built several by the time of the “Park” session, so Frasure, Smith and Ashley Gorley (“I Had Some Help,” “I Am Not Okay”) were in a position to take a few more creative risks.
“There’s a little bit of a freedom when you’ve got a couple in the can on a writing retreat,” Frasure says. “It’s very relaxing, and you’re like, ‘Okay, cool.’ So you pull up some more aggressive tracks.”
Frasure purposely introduced an instrumental track he’d created with a danceable tempo and a bright feel. “I want to put things in the artist’s pile that are fun, energetic, that you could see pyro going off on stage,” Frasure says. “The more I do this, the more that’s what I get excited about, because I just feel like that’s the soundtrack to people’s lives. People love a well-written tune, and we’ll give awards to those, but I want the one that’s gonna be on someone’s playlist on the boat.”
The track resonated in the room – Frasure’s wife, Rhythm House vp Stevie Frasure, and Hubbard’s wife, Hayley, were both grooving along with it – and the writers started sifting through ideas that would fit. Tyler was in the other writer room as they considered titles, and Gorley brought up the word “Park,” from his list. The contrast between the dance tempo and the word “Park” was worth exploring.
“To me, there’s a really interesting, cool flip in the storyline here,” Smith says. “Yes, he likes to go fast, but there’s nothing he’d rather do than just put it in park.”
When Tyler returned, he gave them a green light on the song, which was already in process, and they got the wheels turning on the chorus, launching into it with a line custom-made for Hubbard: “I can drive you from this holler to Hollywood.” The chorus explored the driving theme – the horsepower, speed and screaming tires – but made the thematic flip by the end of the chorus as the singer considers the girl riding shotgun: “All I wanna do is park.”
“It was just sort of a picture of young, innocent, and it’s fun and a little bit risky and wild,” Hubbard says. “We’ve all been there at some point in our life, and I like to think occasionally, it’s fun to just go back to that mindset.”
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The two verses added some detail to the storyline: a couple kids racing through dirt roads around midnight, flirting with the thrill of driving for hours in the anonymous darkness, but flirting even more intensely with each other. As the writers cruised through the lyrics, Hubbard reconnected with one of his own experiences, making out at age 15 in his girlfriend’s car in the church parking lot, only to have a cop interrupt, then take Hubbard home and rat him out to his parents. Hubbard was grounded for the next month.
“It was a learning lesson, for sure,” he says. “It was only a mile from the house. My dad was like, ‘Why didn’t you just come sit in the driveway?’”
Between the programmed track and the guitars in the room, the song was propelled by stacks of rhythm, and they decided to create room for a guitar solo that ultimately shifted into a short bridge. Those sections use the same four chords as the rest of the song, though they’re arranged in a different order, making that mid-song departure feel easy and natural.
“Bridges usually are for troubled waters,” Smith quips, “but we didn’t feel like this was any trouble. We wanted it to carry along and keep people immersed in what was happening, and sometimes you can do that musically with just a little reset.”
Frasure produced a brisk, almost-skipping demo that gave Hubbard and his co-producer, Jordan M. Schmidt (Mitchell Tenpenny, The Band Camino), a strong foundation. Tony Lucido’s start-and-stop bass hook, layers of guitars and Nir Z’s 700 horses of dramatic drum fills intensified the groove during a tracking session at Nashville’s Sound Stage.
“Certain songs just require certain things,” Smith reasons, “and this one definitely needed the Nir Z treatment.”
Schmidt and Jonny Fung completed the guitar-layering in overdubs, and Hubbard had a relatively easy go of it when he sang final vocals. The “All I wanna do is park” hook was likely the most difficult part of the process, since an “r” consonant can sound harsh at the end of a phrase (think Kevin Cronin singing “remember,” “together” and “forever” in the second verse of REO Speedwagon’s “Keep On Loving You”).
“It does roll off the tongue a little differently,” Hubbard allows, “but it’s somehow always felt natural and always worked, even live. I do have to be a little bit more intentional about it.”
The entire chorus fit perfectly into Hubbard’s vocal sweet spot. “His voice has always, throughout his entire career, cut really well,” Frasure says. “It’s very noticeable, and there’s certain melodies and certain tones – and certain keys, actually – with Tyler’s voice that are just money.”
EMI Nashville released “Park” to country radio via PlayMPE on June 3 as the second single from Hubbard’s album Strong. Hubbard played “Park” second in the set during Kane Brown’s In the Air Tour, though the possibility exists that he could bunch it with “Dancing in the Country” in the future to create an extended party atmosphere.
“When I get a few more singles under my belt and have a little more to play with, we could definitely make a 10- or 12-minute moment,” Hubbard says. “They do live in the same family for sure.”
The late singer-songwriter Toby Keith will get star-studded celebration at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on July 29 when the concert special Toby Keith: American Icon is filmed live at the venue.
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Keith’s fellow country artists Jelly Roll, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Ashley McBryde, Parker McCollum, Darius Rucker, Carrie Underwood, Lainey Wilson and The War and Treaty are among those who will gather for the concert special feting the life and legacy of Oklahoma native Keith.
Toby Keith: American Icon will air on NBC on Wednesday, Aug. 28, from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET/PT.
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Tickets for Toby Keith: American Icon go on sale Friday, June 28, on Ticketmaster at 10 a.m. CT. A portion of the ticket sales will benefit The Toby Keith Foundation’s OK Kids Korral, which offers a cost-free home for families of children with critical illnesses, while funds will also aid Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville.
Keith, who later this year will be posthumously inducted as a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, is known for hits including “Should’ve Been a Cowboy,” “How Do You Like Me Now?!,” “American Soldier” and “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue (The Angry American).” He has earned 20 No. 1 hits on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart and is a member of the all-genre Songwriters Hall of Fame (inducted in 2015) and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (2021). He also earned a National Medal of Arts recipient in 2021 and was named a BMI Icon (2022).
Keith died in February at age 62 following a battle with stomach cancer.
The live concert event and NBC special are being produced by UMG Nashville’s Sing Me Back Home productions and ITV America’s Thinkfactory Media, in association with Alex Coletti Productions. Cindy Mabe, Dawn Gates, and Harper Grae are executive producers for Sing Me Back Home Productions in partnership with Mercury Studios executive producers Alice Webb and Barak Moffitt. Adam Reed and Jordana Hochman are executive producers for Thinkfactory, while Coletti is executive producer for Alex Coletti Productions; TK Kimbrell and R.A. Clark also serve as executive producers, while Mercury Studios represents “Toby Keith: American Icon” for international sales and distribution. The show and special have been packaged by Keith’s longtime agency partner UTA, while the concert at Bridgestone Arena is promoted by Live Nation.
Independence Day is just around the corner, and Macy’s has officially announced the performance lineup for its annual Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks show. Lainey Wilson, Luis Fonsi, Tanner Adell and The War And Treaty are set to take the stage ahead of the famous fireworks display against the New York City backdrop. Mickey Guyton and […]
Reigning CMA and ACM entertainer of the year (and recent Billboard cover star) Lainey Wilson is gearing up for the release of her upcoming album Whirlwind, out Aug. 23 on BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville–and from the looks of the tracklist revealed on Tuesday (June 25), the album will feature Wilson teaming up with fellow country […]
Kelsea Ballerini has reached a settlement to end her lawsuit against a superfan she had accused of leaking her unreleased album, agreeing to drop the case after the alleged hacker promised to never again share the materials.
Ballerini sued Bo Ewing in April over accusations that he hacked her unfinished album and shared it with a fan club. The country star claimed Ewing — allegedly an ex-fan who had become disillusioned with her — had gained illegal “back-door access” to song still in production.
But Ewing’s lawyers quickly promised to stop sharing her songs and to name names of any people he’d already sent them to, suggesting he was unwilling to fight Ballerini’s lawsuit. And in a Monday filing signed by both sides, Ewing agreed to permanently be barred from leaking the star’s songs.
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“Defendant is enjoined from knowingly or purposefully accessing any unreleased recordings, unreleased performances, unreleased videos, or any other unreleased content created by, believed to have been created by, or otherwise associated with plaintiffs in any form,” the two sides wrote in a joint filing. “Defendant is enjoined further accessing any of the recordings that are the subject of this litigation and which defendant has affirmatively declared are no longer in his possession.”
In return for such an agreement, Ballerini asked the judge overseeing the case to dismiss her lawsuit permanently. Any other specific terms of the settlement, including potential monetary payments, were not disclosed in court filings. Neither side immediately returned requests for comment on Tuesday.
Ballerini filed the case in April, claiming she had been the victim of a “nefarious digital attack” carried out by “unscrupulous individuals seeking attention.” The leak not only undercut “the most critical time” for an album’s commercial success, her attorneys said, but also deprived her of her artistic agency.
“Ms. Ballerini and her team are the only people who can say when the recordings are complete,” her lawyers wrote at the time. “Defendant’s actions have stripped plaintiffs of that right and caused the distribution of unfinished work that may not yet be up to plaintiffs’ high professional standards.”
Almost immediately, though, Ewing agreed to play ball with Ballerini’s attorneys. In a filing just days after he was sued, he agreed to be bound by a preliminary injunction that required him divulge who he has already shared them with and how he came into possession of her music.
“Defendant shall, within thirty days of entry of this order, provide plaintiffs with the names and contact information for all people to whom defendant disseminated the recordings,” the agreement reads. “Defendant shall use his best efforts to disclose to Plaintiffs from whom and by what means he obtained the recordings.”
The names of any alleged co-leakers were not disclosed in court filings, and it’s unclear if Ballerini will take further legal action against any others who may have been involved the alleged hack.
Post Malone, who will release his debut country album F-1 Trillion on Aug. 16, is set to take his country show on the road this fall. “I love y’all so very much and I’m so excited to get out and play new music for you,” the musician said in a statement. The “I Had Some […]
Post Malone is bringing his biggest hits and new music to Nashville next month.
One month before the release of his debut country album F-1 Trillion on Aug. 16, Post Malone will give Music City a preview of the album when he teams with Bud Light for “A Night in Nashville,” on July 16, an evening of music for fans 21 and older which will feature Post Malone performing not only new music from the album, but also many of his biggest hits.
“Bud Light has rocked with me for a while now, and I really can’t thank them enough for all the love and support they’ve shown through the years,” Post Malone said in a statement. “July 16th is going to be a kick ass night and I can’t wait to share what I’ve been working on with everybody.”
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Fans can direct message Bud Light’s Instagram or Facebook “A Night in Nashville” for information on the process for entering for a chance to win tickets for the show via Bud Light’s Easy Wishes platform.
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“Post Malone is the hottest artist in the world and a loyal Bud Light partner and true fan of the brand. Bud Light has been so lucky to have a front row seat to his remarkable career over the years and we couldn’t be more excited to embark on this new era with him,” Todd Allen, Sr VP, Marketing for Bud Light, said in a statement. “Bud Light is bringing the best of country music to fans all summer long and ‘A Night in Nashville’ is the epitome of a true once-in-a-lifetime country experience we know fans will never forget.”
Post Malone just revealed the official music video to his new collaboration with Blake Shelton, “Pour Me a Drink,” and has spent five weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart with his Morgan Wallen collaboration “I Had Some Help.” The song also spent five weeks atop the Hot 100, marking Post Malone’s sixth Hot 100 chart-topping hit.
The Wallen and Shelton collabs aren’t Post Malone’s only hit collaborations this year; his song “Fortnight” with Taylor Swift spent two weeks atop the Hot 100 earlier this year, while his collaboration with Beyonce, “Levii’s Jeans,” reached No. 16 on the Hot 100.
Post Malone also recently made his debut performance at revered Nashville venue The Bluebird Cafe, where he performed in the round alongside reigning CMA and ACM entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson and hit songwriter Ashley Gorley, as well as with guest Ernest.